A new series of polls released Sunday show former President Trump and Vice President Harris are neck and neck in seven battleground states with less than 48 hours to go until Election Day. 

The New York Times/Siena College polls of likely voters show Trump and Harris are tied in Pennsylvania and Michigan. 

In Arizona, Trump is leading Harris 49-45%, while Harris is ahead of Trump 49-46% in Nevada, 49-47% in Wisconsin, 48-46% in North Carolina and 48-47% in Georgia. 

A total of 7,879 likely voters were surveyed across the seven battleground states between Oct. 24 to Nov. 2, with 1,025 in Arizona, 1,004 in Georgia, 998 in Michigan, 1,010 in Nevada, 1,010 in North Carolina, 1,527 in Pennsylvania and 1,305 in Wisconsin, according to The New York Times. The polls have a margin of error of 3.5%.  

Of the 8% of voters who indicated that they only recently decided who they were voting for, 55% said they are backing Harris, compared to 44% for Trump, The New York Times reported. 

The newspaper also reported that 11% of voters still remain undecided or persuadable, down from 16% a month ago. 

Across all the battleground states, 24% of the likely voters said the economy – which includes jobs and the stock market – is their top issue, followed by abortion with 18% and immigration with 15%.  

Harris is underperforming compared to President Biden in 2020 among younger voters, Black voters and Latino voters, according to The New York Times. 

In Pennsylvania, incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, is leading challenger David McCormick 50-45%, which is down from nine points in September, the newspaper says. 

In Wisconsin, the polls show incumbent Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s lead over Republican Eric Hovde is narrowing as well, as it’s currently 50-46%, which is down from eight points around a month ago, The New York Times adds. 

The race for Michigan’s open Senate seat is also closely contested, with Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin leading Republican challenger Mike Rogers 48-46%, the polls show.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ cameo on the final episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ before Tuesday’s presidential election has some viewers on social media pointing out the skit appeared to mirror one former President Trump performed with Jimmy Fallon in 2015.

Harris appeared in the sketch alongside her impersonator, Maya Rudolph, at the end of the cold open. In the sketch, Harris appears as a reflection in a mirror to offer advice to Rudolph’s Harris.

‘I wish I could talk to someone who’s been in my shoes. You know, a Black, south Asian woman running for president. Preferably from the Bay Area,’ Rudolph’s Harris wondered to herself in an empty dressing room.

The vice president, who was then revealed to be on the other side of the dressing room mirror, responded, ‘You and me both, sister.’

While some took to social media to praise the sketch, others claimed the skit copied one that former President Trump performed with Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’ in September 2015 when Trump was running for president.

‘I knew that SNL sketch with Kamala Harris looked familiar…,’ KVI Seattle radio host Ari Hoffman wrote on X. ‘Kamala continues her pattern of ripping off Trump.’

Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, have previously accused Harris of plagiarizing the policies of Trump, such as no taxes on tips, raising the child tax credit, while flip-flopping on other policies to take positions more in line with Trump’s than what she previously held.

Another social media user argued the sketch was ’embarrassing’ for Harris.

Others took to social media claiming the sketch ‘directly copied’ the bit between Trump and Fallon from nine years earlier.

Despite the criticism, both the Harris and Trump sketches have followed other ‘in the mirror’ sketches Fallon also performed with famous partners.

Fallon performed the ‘in the mirror’ sketch with The Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger in 2001 on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ 

In March 2015, Fallon performed the bit again with Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, presidential candidate and current Utah senator, before the politician’s interview on ‘The Tonight Show.’

The Trump campaign, however, disparaged Harris’ appearance on the show when reports of her ‘surprise’ cameo surfaced on Saturday.

‘Kamala Harris has nothing substantive to offer the American people, so that’s why she’s living out her warped fantasy cosplaying with her elitist friends on Saturday Night Leftists as her campaign spirals down the drain into obscurity. For the last four years, Kamala’s destructive policies have led to untold misery and hurt for all Americans. She broke it, and President Trump will fix it,’ spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital.

Brendan Carr, a Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, called the appearance a ‘clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule.

Fox News Digital’s David Rutz and Michael Lee contributed to this report.

Presidential campaigns are first and foremost about messaging. In any race, the campaigns and the media push the importance of certain ideas or moments in the hopes that they will saturate the public consciousness. But out of hundreds of attempts at this, only a handful succeed.

In 2024, during my travels to over two dozen towns and cities, there were five moments that stand out for capturing the imagination of the electorate, and shaping voting preferences of Americans. Each changed the narrative of the race and carved out a new direction for it. 

No matter who wins, these are the stories that got us here.

The Butler Assassination Attempt

In an echo of the original shot heard round the world, Donald Trump’s near miss in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left a defiant former president shot, bleeding and pumping his fist to the crowd is the most iconic moment of this election. For Trump supporters, the shooting reinforced what they already felt about him: that he was strong, courageous, and maybe even a bit obstinate.

For independents and even some Democrats I spoke with, Trump’s brush with death sent a clear signal that it was time for the dangerous rhetoric of calling him ‘Hitler’ to stop, and for a while, it did. But not for long. 

Also, at that moment, many people, including two ship workers I spoke with in Toledo, Ohio, thought the race was over. One of them looked at the TV, then at me, and said, ‘That’s it, he’s gonna win.’ And that brings us directly to our second moment.

Biden’s Timing Dropping Out

Easily the most important, historic and consequential event in the 2024 race was President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the contest. And it wasn’t just the choice, it was very much the timing. 

Nobody knows what role the attempt on Trump’s life played in Biden’s decision, but for weeks before, he and his allies insisted he wasn’t going anywhere despite his bizarre and troubling debate performance against Trump. It was only after the shooting, and a triumphant Republican National Convention that celebrated Trump’s survival, that the pressure on Biden became too much to bear.

Had Biden chosen to drop out in March, Kamala Harris may or may not have won a contested Democratic primary, but she would have had to go through that gauntlet, answering questions and doing interviews. Biden left no time for that.

The comment I heard most commonly from voters on the ground, especially after she disavowed a dozen of her previous progressive positions, was ‘I just don’t know who she is.’ But that was going to change.

Harris Starts Doing Interviews

In late August, after weeks of running a ‘Hidin’ Harris’ 2024 campaign in which she refused to do any interviews, the vice president finally sat down for a friendly exchange with NBC News’ Lester Holt, bringing her running mate Tim Walz along. It did not go well. Trying to address her flip-flopping, she said, ‘My values have not changed,’ which did not answer the question.

It got worse weeks later when Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier grilled the veep, who at one point, exasperated, said to the newsman, ‘You and I both know what I’m talking about,’ to which Baier, speaking for millions of Americans, replied, ‘I actually don’t. What are you talking about?’

After that, the most common comment I heard from voters was no longer, ‘I don’t know who she is,’ but, ‘Why can’t she answer any questions?’ I even heard this from union guys stumping for Harris in Pennsylvania. If she loses, this will likely be why.

Springfield, Ohio

‘They’re eating the cats, They’re eating dogs,’ Trump said at the presidential debate, to howling accusations of racism from Democrats and the media who argued Trump was endangering the 15,000 Haitian migrants in Springfield, a city of a mere 60,000 residents. 

It was classic Trump. First he made the story about himself, picking up on running mate JD Vance’s suggestion that pets were becoming meat, but then, when the dust settled, the story became Springfield itself, and the obvious mismanagement of the migrant asylum program there, which had previously been ignored.

In Springfield, I heard from grateful citizens who were finally being listened to, and it resonated more broadly. One woman in Bedford, Pa., told me, ‘I don’t care about the cats and dogs, but I am worried about 10,000 migrants being dropped on our doorstep.’

The Teamsters Snub

When the Teamsters refused to endorse Harris for president in late September, it was actually two bombshells in one. First, was the snub itself, and then internal polling that showed Biden had been beating Trump by double digits, but Trump was beating Harris by double digits.

This was an earthquake for Democrats who rely heavily on not just the votes of private sector union members, but their organization. In Washington, Pa., around that time, I met a former Teamsters official whose disdain for Harris was so vivid and audible that a waiter had to tell us to quiet down.

This was the first major chink in Harris’ armor. From that point on, the joy and optimism that had permeated her campaign turned into a darker, more fearful message that culminated in words like ‘Hitler’ and ‘fascist’ making their dangerous return to the trail. 

Over the coming days or weeks we will know the outcome of this election, but whatever it is, it will have been shaped by unexpected moments that shook the campaign and seized the attention of America’s voters. 

Politics can bring the horse of voter interest to water, but can’t make voters drink. These five events did make them drink. And for one side or the other, a bad hangover is soon on its way.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have spent months traveling the country on the 2024 presidential election campaign trail, vying for America’s vote to move into the White House.

With every new presidential election cycle, U.S. citizens ask themselves the same question, keeping in mind the power of the Electoral College: ‘Does my vote count?’

Local and state officials elected into office in the U.S. are able to do so by winning the popular vote. However, the President of the United States is selected with the help of the Electoral College and the popular vote.

Most often, the popular vote and the electoral vote mirror each other, but there are few instances in history when the two have differed. Most recently, in 2016, Trump won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is the formal process in which the President and Vice President of the United States are elected into office.

‘The Electoral College, as we know it, was created by the 12th Amendment of the Constitution, which was ratified in 1804. Today, there are a total of 538 electoral votes, and a candidate needs at least 270 to win,’ Fox News’ Todd Piro explained on ‘Fox and Friends’ in November 2020. 

In the Electoral College, Washington D.C. has its own three electors. 

In 48 states, plus Washington D.C., the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral votes for that state, according to USA.gov. This is apart from Maine and Nebraska, where a proportional system is used, per the source.

How does the Electoral College work?

While the popular vote takes place in November, the electoral vote doesn’t take place until about a month later, in mid-December. 

Who is chosen as a state’s electors, how they are chosen and when they are picked vary state-by-state, but there is a two-part system in place, according to the National Archive’s website.

Slates of electors are chosen at state party conventions, or they are voted on by the party’s central committee based on state or national party rules.

During a general election, voters across the states cast their ballots to select their electors who will represent their decesion in the presidential election. The names of electors may or may not appear on the ballots.

Electors pledge to vote for specific candidates, though they are not legally obligated to do so. While there is no federal law in place for electors to vote a certain way, penalties, like being disqualified from future ballots, are in place.

Through the years, there have been many calls made to change the Electoral College as we know it. 

‘Over the years, there have been hundreds of proposed amendments to change the Electoral College, but only one has gotten remotely close to being passed after the 1968 presidential election saw Richard Nixon win against Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace,’ Piro said. ‘A 1969 bill to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote passed in the House of Representatives, and though it was endorsed by Nixon, the bill eventually died in the Senate after it was filibustered, and it still stands today.’

Recently, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the elimination of the Electoral College altogether. 

‘I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,’ he said at a California fundraising event in October, according to a pool report at the event, Bloomberg reported. ‘We need a national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in.’

In order to do away with the system created by the Founding Fathers, a major constitutional change would need to be made.

Authorities say an Iranian-American journalist who worked for a U.S.-funded broadcaster is believed to have been detained by Iran for months, according to a report.

State Department officials acknowledged to the Associated Press that Reza Valizadeh has been imprisoned by the Iranian regime. Valizadeh worked for Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which provides ‘factual, objective and professional journalism’ to its audience, broadcasting in Farsi from the Czech Republic. Iran’s theocracy views Radio Farda as a hostile outlet. 

Valizadeh’s detainment comes as Iran celebrates the 45th anniversary of the American Embassy takeover and hostage crisis on Sunday. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also been threatening both the U.S. and Israel with a ‘crushing response’ after U.S Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered additional B-52 bombers and Navy warships to the Middle East amid rising tensions. 

Valizadeh in February had posted on X that members of his family had been detained in Iran and pressured to convince him to return to the country. 

In August, Valizadeh reportedly posted two messages that suggested he had indeed returned to Iran without guarantees for his safety. 

‘I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Before that, I had unfinished negotiations with the (Revolutionary Guard’s) intelligence department,’ one message read in part, according to the AP. ‘Eventually, I came back to my country after 13 years without any security guarantee, even a verbal one.’

Valizadeh included a cryptic message with the name of a man he claimed belonged to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. The AP could not verify if the person worked for the ministry. 

The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which monitors cases in Iran, reported earlier this month that Valizadeh had been arrested and transferred to Evin prison. The report said he had been denied legal representation and that the charges against him remain undisclosed. 

The State Department told the AP that it was ‘aware of reports that this dual U.S.-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran,’ when asked about rumors that Valizadeh had been detained. 

‘We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as the protecting power for the United States in Iran to gather more information about this case,’ the State Department said. ‘Iran routinely imprisons U.S. citizens and other countries’ citizens unjustly for political purposes. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law.’

Iranian officials have not acknowledged Valizadeh’s detention. 

Since the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world. In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.

Valizadeh is the first American known to be detained by Iran in the time since.

Iran commemorated the anniversary of the embassy takeover on Sunday with thousands of demonstrators chanting, ‘Death to America,’ and, ‘Death to Israel,’ outside the former U.S. Embassy. Some burned U.S. and Israeli flags, the AP reported.  

They also carried images of killed top figures of Iran-backed terrorist groups including Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Palestinian Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The crowd in the state-organized rallies chanted they were ready to defend the Palestinians.

Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, spoke in Tehran and reiterated Khamenei’s pledge to respond to the U.S. military’s presence in the Middle East and intensified engagements between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

‘The resistance front and Iran will equip itself with whatever necessary to confront and defeat the enemy,’ Salami said, per the AP. 

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Liz Friden, as well as the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Three years have passed since the Taliban’s swift takeover upended Afghanistan.

Women have largely taken up home confinement, and men live in fear of being suspected of aiding the resistance, a charge that could result in death. In the chaos, as the U.S. hastily withdrew, countless Afghan allies were abandoned to an uncertain fate.

While the wall-to-wall press coverage of what’s been called President Biden’s ‘Saigon moment’ has largely quieted down, the Afghan diaspora living in the U.S. has not forgotten relatives in the homeland. 

Zoubair Sangi helped found a movement for the Afghan diaspora to unite and bring a sense of betrayal by the Biden administration to the ballot box with the new advocacy group Afghans for Trump.

‘If you were to ask [Afghans in Afghanistan], would you want a continuation of the last three years, which has been the failed policy of the Biden-Harris administration? They would say no because their lives are miserable right now,’ Sangi told Fox News Digital.

‘It’s been three years where women can’t go to school. Terrorism has been on the rise. We have the attacking of ethnic and religious minorities.’

Sangi’s parents came to the U.S. in the 1980s as the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. 

Much of his family still lives in the nation. 

‘What they say is that it feels like they’re living in a prison,’ Sangi said. 

‘Anyone who’s suspected of resistance, just being kidnapped, jailed, tortured, killed. For the last three years, this has been going on. But zero coverage. So, you know, those who are living here, they feel like they’ve lost everything.‘

Sangi says Afghans for Trump is reaching out to the diaspora, those who are Afghan by background but U.S. citizens, and has been in touch with recent refugees who left after the withdrawal, most of whom are not citizens and can’t vote in the election. 

‘It’s a U.S. national security concern as well,’ Sangi said. The Taliban ‘have been in connection with al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. So, this resurgence is a threat to the West as they are coordinating and planning [attacks].’ 

Biden often blames former President Trump for the withdrawal, arguing he was constrained to a deadline agreed to under Trump’s deal with the Taliban. Trump now says that deal was meaningless because the Taliban had not been holding up their end of the deal, and he wouldn’t have abided by it, though he has not voiced support for a continued presence in the region. 

If Trump wins the presidency, Sangi said he hopes Trump will stop the funneling of money to Afghanistan, dollars that are earmarked for humanitarian aid but often end up in Taliban hands.

‘There is also a resistance in Afghanistan whose values align with the American people who have been allies of the Americans for over 20 years,’ he said. 

‘The National Resistance Front in Afghanistan is a perfect alternative where we don’t have to get boots on the ground. … We just need to support this moderate resistance.’

Sangi called to mind the acts of past administrations, such as former President Reagan providing aid to Afghanistan’s Mujahideen to fight the Soviets and former President George W. Bush’s War on Terror.

‘They supported the people of Afghanistan. And, you know, we fought our own battle. And it proved successful. So, fighting the Taliban should be much less of a challenge than that time,’ he said. 

‘We believe it’s in our best interest to have support from a president who cares about the implications of what’s going on in Afghanistan … such as cutting off the funding to the Taliban at $40 million a week.’ 

According to an August 2023 World Bank report, in only a year’s time, the U.N. flew in by helicopter bags of cash worth some $2.9 billion to Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control. The bulk of that was from funds allocated by the U.S., and at least some of which ended up in the Taliban-controlled central bank, according to a SIGAR report. The Taliban then ‘taxes’ this cash at multiple points of distribution. 

‘The Taliban are pocketing this money, and we see them using it for things such as military parades of suicide bombers,’ said Sangi. 

‘None of it is going to the people who are living there. You know, I have family there, and they’re not receiving any of this aid. The population is facing starvation, mass unemployment.’

With a sense of optimism, Sangi predicted Middle East policy may decide next week’s election despite the long-running assumption that elections are decided by domestic issues. 

‘This is the one time where I think every single person across almost every spectrum of society feels the repercussions of what’s going on, the turmoil in the Middle East,’ he said. ‘This cannot continue because, if it does, we can go further into World War III, and nobody wants that.’

I wasn’t planning to write this.

Two years ago, I said I would vote for a Democrat over Donald Trump in 2024. I wrote that during a Republican primary I hoped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would win; DeSantis had stood almost alone against COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates, forever earning my respect.

But Trump crushed DeSantis in the primary. Ever since, I have struggled over what to do in this election.

In one sense, my vote doesn’t matter. I live in New York, which Kamala Harris is sure to win. But it must matter at least a little, because many of you – a surprising number – have asked or urged me to repudiate my 2022 words and endorse Trump.

With three days left in this most brutal of campaigns, I am.

In some ways, this choice pains me.

Donald Trump’s rhetoric is vicious. His unwillingness to promise to abide by the results of Tuesday’s election is dangerous. His friendly attitude towards dictators like Vladimir Putin disheartens me. And though I hate abortion, I do not support overturning Roe v Wade.

Yet.

Yet when I pull back and consider the issues, I see:

It is the Democratic Party that stands against free speech; that forced mRNA vaccines on tens of millions of healthy adults; that opened America’s southern border until public outcry forced it closed; that supports decriminalization of drugs and ‘decarceration’ of violent criminals; that presides over one giveaway after another to its favored interest groups; and that is willing to risk the American economy over its fears of climate change – it has, with little notice, pushed through regulations that will make gasoline-powered vehicles all but unaffordable within a decade.

What exactly does Kamala Harris stand for, if not more of the same?

That’s not a rhetorical question. I truly don’t know. But she is happy to take the endorsement of Dick Cheney, the chickenhawk warmonger who for 50 years has stood for everything wrong with American elites and American politics.

And if Donald Trump’s words have grown more vicious, he has his reasons.

In the last year, prosecutors in his former home state launched not one but two trials against him, the first aimed at bankrupting him over loans he repaid in full, the second at imprisoning him for the crime of winning in 2016. In front of juries in Manhattan, a county that voted against Trump by nearly 9 to 1 in 2020, both succeeded.

And – though the media rarely sees fit to mention this – Trump was almost assassinated in July, under circumstances that remain somewhat murky.

In response, Trump did NOT stop campaigning.

He is working harder to win votes than he ever has, in the face of an elite media that hates him more than ever. For all his complaints about rigged elections, he wants to win this one quite badly.

So, yes, Donald Trump is angry. He has the right to be.

We ALL have the right to be. For too long, our self-appointed betters – in the media, in public health, in academia – have told us they know best. They have told us that men can be women if they just click their heels three times, that the United States is an evil nation founded mostly to protect slavery, that there’s no such thing as an illegal immigrant. Most of all they have tried to shut down – to cancel, to censor -anyone who disagrees.

They’ve gone too far. And with their lawfare, they have proven that they will do anything to stop the man they abhor.

So I will be voting for Donald Trump.

It is not an easy choice – not for me, anyway – but it is the only choice.

Former President Trump plans to take a final swipe at Vice President Kamala Harris over the latest jobs report on Friday.

Prepared remarks for Trump’s upcoming rally in North Carolina later Saturday show him blaming Harris for tens of thousands of lost jobs. The report itself from the Department of Labor blames the losses on the fallout from hurricanes Helene and Milton.

‘Yesterday, it was announced that our country lost nearly 30,000 private sector jobs last month alone, along with nearly 50,000 manufacturing jobs in a single month. They’re trying to blame the Hurricane for the jobs numbers—but it wasn’t Hurricane Helene, it was Hurricane Kamala,’ Trump is set to say.

‘Under her catastrophic economic agenda, more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been wiped out since the start of this year. 150,000 Americans joined the unemployment rolls last month, and nearly a quarter of a million people dropped out of the labor force,’ the remarks continue.

U.S. job growth slowed down in October, coming in well short of economists’ expectations, while the unemployment rate was unchanged.

The Labor Department on Friday reported that employers added 12,000 jobs in October, well below the 113,000 gain that was predicted by LSEG economists and the lowest tally since December 2020.

The unemployment rate was 4.1%, in line with expectations.

The number of jobs added in the prior two months were both revised downward, with job creation in August revised down by 81,000 from a gain of 159,000 to 78,000, while September was revised down by 31,000 from a gain of 254,000 to 223,000.

Private sector payrolls contracted by 28,000 in October after LSEG economists projected they would rise by 90,000.

The manufacturing sector saw employment decline by 46,000 jobs in October, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) noted was largely due to strike activity in the transportation equipment manufacturing sector. About 33,000 unionized machinists at Boeing have been on strike since early September.

The construction sector added 8,000 jobs — below the average of 20,000 jobs per month in the past 12 months. Health care added 52,300 jobs in October, near its average monthly gain of 58,000 in the last year.

The government added 40,000 jobs in October, mostly in line with its average monthly gain of 43,000 over the past 12 months.

The BLS noted that Hurricane Helene made landfall in the southeast before the reference period for its employment surveys, while Hurricane Milton hit the same region during the report period.

Fox Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report

Democratic insiders and strategists heading into the final hours of the election are expressing confidence that Vice President Kamala Harris will defeat former President Donald Trump on Tuesday at the ballot box. 

‘Nauseously optimistic,’ is how Democrats described themselves to New York magazine as the clock continues ticking for the final 100 hours of the election cycle. 

Trump and Harris both delivered what were their respective closing arguments earlier this week, with Trump addressing massive crowds at a historic rally at Madison Square Garden, and Harris delivering her final pitch in the nation’s capital Tuesday at the Ellipse, located just south of the White House and north of the National Mall. 

Polls are neck-and-neck, with a Fox News national survey published last month finding that Trump had a two-point edge over Harris, while the pair have zeroed-in on campaigning in key battleground states to increase the weight on their respective political scales. As of Saturday morning, Trump has nine events scheduled until Election Day, zig-zagging from battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania and Michigan to Georgia and also Virginia. 

Harris is expected to travel to Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday, before delivering her final pitch to voters in Michigan’s rust belt on Sunday. As she caps off her final leg of the campaign since ascending the top of the Democratic ticket in July, when President Biden dropped out of the race, her allies have touted that she has a win within her grasp. 

David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, said this weekend that voters deciding for whom to cast their ballot late into the election are going to benefit the Harris campaign and carry them to a victory. 

‘The question is, of the people who have not yet decided who to vote for, who are actually going to vote?’ he said on CNN Friday, noting that current polls show Harris and Trump tied. ‘And our sense in the last week is that the people who have made up their mind in the last week we’re doing quite well with, and we like the people who have yet to make a decision . . . .’

‘It’s very important to look at who those undecideds are,’ Plouffe added.

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who worked as lead strategist for former President Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 election, touted that Harris’ financial backing and ‘united’ Democrat Party sets her up for a win over Trump come Tuesday. 

‘I think she’s going to win,’ Carville said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ on Friday. ‘She’s got more money, more energy, has a more united party, has better surrogates, and he’s stone-a–nuts.’

New York magazine detailed in a piece this week that the buzz among Democrats is they are cautiously optimistic of a win on Tuesday, ‘largely based on the campaign’s close monitoring of early voting data from the seven battleground states, and its evolving understanding of who has already cast ballots and who’s left to convince.’

‘The posture is driven both by reports from the field, especially from canvassers in competitive suburbs, and by senior advisers staring at the analytics in Wilmington. It’s far from a prediction of a win. Instead, it’s a belief that Harris maintains achievable paths to winning a majority or plurality of the vote in the tightly contested states — each of which they see as effectively tied, and almost all of which they see as home to a Democratic advantage in get-out-the-vote operations,’ the outlet reported. 

Other Democratic insiders are reporting more or less the same on social media and during media interviews. 

Jon Favreau, former President Barack Obama’s director of speechwriting, posted on X, for example, that though the race is an ‘extremely close toss-up,’ he argued that Trump isn’t ending on a strong note, pointing to jokes made by a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally that were viewed negatively by the media and Democrats and other political issues he sees as election demerits. 

Daily Beast columnist and political affairs analyst David Rothkopf declared in a column on Friday that, ‘Kamala Harris is going to be the next president of the United States,’ pointing to Harris’ ‘exceptional campaign,’ speeches that were ‘suffused with a new energy and vision’ for the nation, and her ‘‘closing argument’ on the Ellipse in Washington.’ 

‘On January 20, 2025, she will become America’s first woman president, America’s first woman of color to be commander-in-chief and America’s first person of Asian heritage to become the country’s chief executive,’ he wrote. 

CNN senior political data reporter Harry Enten said Thursday that there are ‘clear’ signs of a Harris win. 

‘And the number-one sign is that Harris, simply put, is more popular than Donald Trump,’ he said. 

The Trump campaign and its allies have meanwhile remained steadfast that the Republican ticket will be victorious on Tuesday, as Trump rallies his base to vote early and attracts new supporters through his ‘make America great again’ pleddge following the Biden-Harris administration. As the cycle entered its final weeks, Trump said during a Las Vegas rally last month that the Harris campaign is ‘imploding’ and has a victory in his sights. 

‘[Harris is] actually imploding, if you take a look. Because, look, I’m not supposed to say it, but we are leading by so much,’ Trump said last Thursday. 

‘Now, we’re leading by a lot in Nevada. We’re leading by a lot in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Even states that are typically never in play for 50, 60, 70 years. . . . But the fact is that states, other states too, big states, are all in play and they like us. But you know what? They think she is grossly incompetent. Let’s face it, she is not doing well,’ Trump continued. 

The 45th president added during his Madison Square Garden rally that he will have the ‘biggest victory in the history of our country’ on Election Day. 

‘We’re running against something far bigger than Joe or Kamala. And far more powerful than them, which is a massive, vicious, crooked, radical left machine that runs today’s Democrat Party. They’re just vessels. In fact, they’re perfect vessels, because they’ll never give them a hard time. They’ll do whatever they want. I know many of them. It’s just this amorphous group of people. But they’re smart, and they’re vicious, and we have to defeat them,’ he said.

‘We’re going to have the biggest victory in the history of our country on Nov. 5, and it’s going to be the biggest victory in history. We’re going to make America great again.’

Rapper Cardi B took the stage in Wisconsin to deliver a speech at a campaign rally for Vice President Harris on Friday, but an apparent teleprompter glitch had the performer stumbling before she could begin.

Cardi B was among the celebrities at Harris’ third and final Wisconsin rally, in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis. Milwaukee is home to the most Democratic votes in Wisconsin, but its conservative suburbs are where most Republicans live.

As Cardi B stood before the podium, it appeared the teleprompter wasn’t displaying her speech.

‘One second guys, one second,’ the rapper said as the crowd cheered.

For nearly two minutes, the ‘WAP’ singer tried to work the crowd until the apparent glitch was fixed.

‘I’m a little nervous, guys! I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,’ she said as the crowd continued to cheer the rapper on.

‘I need Patience over here. Patience, where are you girl?’ Cardi B said, referring to a staffer.

A woman eventually brought Cardi B a cell phone on which the rapper could begin her speech.

‘I took my time writing this speech so I’m going to make sure I deliver it right,’ Cardi B told the crowd.

At one point during the speech, the rapper addressed former President Trump.

‘Did you hear what Donny Trump said the other day?’ Cardi B said, referring to Trump saying he’ll protect women ‘whether they like it or not.’

‘Donny, don’t,’ she said. ‘Please.’

Trump held a dueling rally across town in Milwaukee in the same arena where the Republican convention took place in July.

Trump narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016 but lost in 2020 to President Biden.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.